I am an Allen Discovery Center Scientist and Primary Investigator working as part of the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group at Tufts University, where my research program has the overarching goal of understanding brain-body plasticity – the response of cell populations in vivo to alterations in patterning, local environment, and signaling from neighboring tissues. From a top down perspective, I use a multiscale approach to understand the genetic and physiological controls systems that govern patterning, morphogenesis, and remodeling. From the bottom up, I then use these novel control knobs in basic and biomedical science contexts, to direct specific anatomical and behavioral outcomes.

I received my Ph.D. from Georgetown University where I worked under Dr. Martha Weiss and Dr. Elena Silva Casey on brain remodeling in lepidopteran species. There I performed a number of innovative studies asking the question, can a larva (caterpillar) learn something a moth or butterfly can later remember? The results of those studies were the first to demonstrate trans-metamorphic memory in lepidoptera and peaked my interest in how the brain responds to organization/patterning changes across developmental timespace.